Going into Thursday’s series opener with Arizona, UCLA’s Kelli Godin was already on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and was a finalist for top freshman nationally. Her .441 batting average was 13th in Division I, and her on-base percentage was .471. (Photo courtesy of Don Liebig, ASUCLA)

Godin lives her sporting life with the velocity of a released balloon. Last year she was at Mater Dei, where she was famous for softball and track. Yes, those seasons are simultaneous.

One Saturday she competed at the Arcadia Invitational, hopped into the car that her parents, Russell and Kim, had waiting, and played in a softball tournament in Irvine, which is not just around the corner.

She placed in four events at the CIF-SS championships and helped the Monarchs win the Division 2 title. She won the 100 and 200 meters at the Orange County Championships, anchored a winning relay team and was fourth in the long jump. She also hit .538 and was the Trinity League MVP.

Two years before that, Godin attended a UCLA softball camp and committed to Kelly Inouye-Perez’s program, which has been to the Women’s College World Series four consecutive years and won it in 2010.

Freshmen aren’t supposed to barge into UCLA and mark their territory, but Inouye-Perez had a premonition when she attended a summer tournament in Colorado.

“It’s a huge event, and they just keep playing all day until they get eliminated,” Inouye-Perez said. “I just kept following her around from diamond to diamond.

“Then practice started in the fall and it was the same thing, she never stopped. Our players were looking around, saying, ‘Who is this girl?’ ”

Going into Thursday’s series opener with Arizona, the second-ranked Bruins were 45-3 and Godin was already on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and was a finalist for top freshman nationally. Her .441 batting average was 13th in Division I, and her on-base percentage was .471. She normally hits ninth and Perez first.

“Bri was the player I looked up to, the one that I said I wanted to be like this year,” Godin said.

Some players are fast enough to upset the infield equations, to break the bang-bang geometry at first base. Godin’s speed has surfaced most often in left field, although Inouye-Perez thinks she can play any infield or outfield position.

The stolen bases are another story, because softball players can’t get a lead off first base, the pitchers all have blurry motions, and it’s not that far from catcher to second base.

“You steal off the catcher in this game, not the pitcher,” Inouye-Perez said.

“We study the pop times,” said Godin, referring to the quickness of the pitcher’s delivery and the catcher’s throw, “and then you look at where the shortstop and the second baseman are positioned. I just let the coach do the thinking, just do what I’m told.”

Godin hasn’t hit a home run yet. She keeps telling Inouye-Perez that today’s the day, and they’ll both laugh.

The choices were Rachel Garcia, Holly Azevedo and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Megan Faraimo. Together they have 518 strikeouts in 309 innings, have given up just 18 home runs and their ERAs, respectively, are 0.71, 1.31 and 1.92. No good options, and nothing else on the menu.

“Day to day, I got adjusted,” Godin said. “Softball is a mental sport. You just put things behind you. When I got here I said if I just got to base-run I’d be happy. There are so many amazing athletes. But the game doesn’t know your age.”

Her brother Curtis was a county sprint champion and wound up playing baseball at UCLA, but softball was her priority. Kelli didn’t begin her travel-ball career until she was 14, but she’d already committed to the Bruins before she ran track at Mater Dei. If she had time to miss track, she might, but she doesn’t.

“The coaches at Mater Dei were the reason I did it in the first place,” she said. “They moderated my conditioning for softball so I could go all-out in track. And a lot of it was the atmosphere at home. They supported the fact that I was playing. When you came home it’s like you hadn’t even played. If you went 0 for 3 they were still positive. They let me do things at my own pace.”

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